Words in Space
by Taokan
Summary: A series of drabbles set during the Mass Effect storyline.
1. The elevator

Shepard blew a sigh out between her lips and rested her forehead against the elevator doors, tiredly massaging her temples. Maybe if she closed her eyes, she could fool herself into thinking that her bunk awaited her on the other side, and not another report for the council. It didn't really work. She could still hear the tiles scrape past on either side of the elevator, prolonging the agony. _Damn and damn. _

There wasn't even any elevator music to distract her from the paperwork looming ever closer in her future. Whoever built this had a twisted mind. Probably human, too. No self-respecting Turian would have had a part in the decision that the only exits from the most flammable room in the ship should be a choice between a short -really short- jaunt out the airlock or a ride in this monstrosity. They would've turned themselves into C-Sec for crimes against humanity. Or whatever. She could see why humans were the laughingstock of the galaxy. They tried, God bless 'em, but, well, sometimes they lost sight of the bigger issue. Like arriving for dinner on time for **once**.

The Turian planning committee had probably laughed themselves sick when the genius who'd drawn up these plans had offered it up for review. She hoped the sick bastard had starved to death in one of his own elevators.

Tali (Shepard had attempted saying the rest of her name only once, and that had been after a few stiff drinks) had an especial hatred for the thing -not too surprising, the poor thing rode it back and forth three times a day for meals- and after her very first trip down to the belly of the beast, she had made a point of asking permission to improve it. Shepard hadn't gotten back to her on it yet. Not because she'd had a second heart about Ashley's, ah, **concerns** about aliens sniffing about the ship's inner workings -that'd be more than a bit hypocritical, considering that Turians had helped build this thing from the ground up- but, well, the elevator was bad enough already. Who knew what it'd be like if a wire got crossed somewhere? She shuddered to think. Listening to Ashley make barely veiled racism remarks to any non-human in earshot for God-only-knew how many hours until the elevator was fixed wasn't exactly her idea of a good time. She'd rather stick her head in the septic vat.

Their last talk on the subject hadn't ended too well. Shepard had gotten fed up with the other woman and had barked something about questioning orders from a superior officer. She didn't remember exactly what, but it'd made Ashley Williams clam up but good. All well and good in the short term -a quiet Ashley was a peaceful Ashley- but it wouldn't hold her back for long. Ashley would bounce back from this soon enough, and Shepard hoped to God that the Gunnery Chief had actually listened, because something would happen to change to change her opinion one way or the other sooner or later. Shepard prayed that it wouldn't be Wrex crushing her head like a seedless grape.


	2. Snippets in Time

_Rated for graphic use "damn," because Renegade Shepherd has a potty-mouth_

**Family**

Amy Wong had asked her once what she thought about her crew. Shepherd had given it some thought, then told her that she thought of them as family. It was exactly the sort of sappy drivel that audiences loved, but it also happened to be true. The details weren't important. Amy didn't need to know that her last "family" had been a pack of thugs and pickpockets that still hit her up for money or jobs on occasion, just as she didn't need to know the details behind Dr. Saleon's death, or that Liara had taken to wearing her mother's headdress.

The old family, the new, what did it matter? If she closed her eyes and listened, why, they sounded the same, and she would toss them aside just as easily when the time came.

**Trust**

She trust Garrus, as much as she trusted anyone who hadn't sat beneath Luna and breathed in deeply of the smog-choked air, wishing so hard that she thought she would die, wishing that they had stopped at Luna.

**Water**

Back on Eden Prime, she'd told Ashley that she was a failure. Ashley had looked like she was going to cry.

**Rules**

Even Garrus didn't complain when Doctor Chakwas turned that temper on him. He may have been a rebel, but even he followed the number one tenet of space travel: don't piss off the doctor.

**Biotics**

Kaidan may have been the next step in evolution, but he wasn't psychic. A psychic would have known better, would have put her on trial instead of showered her with kisses, gave her the last necklace she'd ever wear instead of a ring. A psychic would have known that, after he'd told her of his days in brain camp, she'd hunted down every descendant of that teacher, one by one.

She didn't hold back when she hit with the ruler.

**Armor**

Wrex never spoke to her about his grandfather's armor again, not after she'd sold it to pay for repairs on the Mass Drive. There were too many words freezing in the air between them, and she wouldn't have listened anyway.

**Binary**

Tali had promised to give the data to the flotilla's scientists once her pilgrimage was complete, but she hadn't been able to resist trying to decipher just one more line of text.

She woke up the whole ship when she started to scream in ones and zeroes.

**ROYGBIV**

Doctor Chakwas had started to explain it to her, something about predatory raptors' diets in comparison to that of fruit-eating mammals, who needed to be able to discern fruit in the trees and so on and so forth, all of which was obviously very fascinating to somebody with a degree in doctor-y stuff, but very much less so to everybody else in the galaxy, but Shepherd wasn't listening. "You're colorblind?"

Garrus's jaw plated flared irritably. "We learn to recognize Red very quickly." And that, she supposed, settled the matter.

**Job description**

Shepherd was pretty sure that officers Smith and Matthews did more than salute every time she used the stairs, but damned if had the slighted clue.


End file.
